Support is needed for a workshop that is planned for about 16 people familiar with issues and substance in the area of genomics of E. coli. The object is to synthesize an agreed-upon single data set listing every gene, start and end of the transcribed gene, the name of the gene product, processing changes, the start and end of the processed protein, the cellular role(s), predicted gene product if not experimentally known, nature of the evidence, appropriate citations. This will be accomplished by a group of experts consulting together in pairs and as a group over a period of 5 days. The first workshop of this type proved a success, but the work now needs to be completed. A database of agreed-upon information will result and will be public. The workshop participants also plan to publish a paper discussing the process of assigning hypothetical functions and making recommendations for annotating sequenced genomes. Annotation of all sequenced genomes and most sequenced individual genes is accomplished by finding similarity in sequence to a gene product that has been described experimentally and transferring that name to the unknown. The paper will go into complications and will provide recommendations. The value of this work to the community of all biologists is that data for E. coli genes and gene products is of fundamental importance to interpreting the sequences of all genomic DMAs, from viruses through the human. There are few organisms for which the characterization is complete for well over half their total gene products. Both E. coli and yeast are in this class. It has been difficult however for the biological community to make use of the E. coli information as it is fragmented into several databases with different objectives and there is contradictions.The output of a workshop and a follow-up smaller meeting will meet and solve this serious problem.